Back to the ‘bend in the river’ theme. In the cold November of 2009
I took canvas and oils out to a spot where there was an ‘S’ bend in the
local river that attracted me with its lazy sweep around the corner,
flanked by thick vegetation with a backdrop of dark thorn bushes
and beyond them, a line of willow trees.

As I was in mid flow blocking in the painting I heard that distinctive,
high pitched single note whistle –a kingfisher was coming. I stopped
and waited and sure enough, the kingfisher came around from my left
following the curve of the bend, low to the water and near the far bank.
Always a delightful site, the kingfisher whistled again as it passed out
of site around the right hand bend in the distance.

I never finished this painting. It was very cold, and as soon as
either I’ve eaten or drunk all my provisions, or I start thinking
about a nice hot cup of tea and my hands are getting cold, it’s
time to either man up or pack up. On this occasion the
temptation was too great and I packed up and headed home!

I’ve just made a return trip to the same spot with a view to
finishing the painting, but some heavy fog made for a different
challenge. The subtle, veiled layers and muted colours of the
landscape make for great photographs, but I was interested in
what I could do with paint. Again a kingfisher flew down river,
this time closer to the near bank, and I did think about placing
it in the picture. I’m still tempted. You can see the dark paint
stroke I made at the time in the reflections of the vegetation,
to remind me of  the line the bird took as it flew downriver.

With the new, foggy version I will probably leave it as it is,
but the scene will always be one where a kingfisher flew
round the bend.

In the older painting, I’ve placed the bright blue flash of the
kingfisher as it flew round the right hand bend in the distance.
I first scanned the canvas and applied my ‘kingfisher’ in Adobe
photoshop, to judge whether to apply to the real painting or not.
The jury is out.